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ORT COVINGTON SUN VOL. L. FT. COVINGTON, N. Y.. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30. 1934. NO. 19. Cacao Beans Are Cleaned by Shuffling Feet in Brazil. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WND Service. D O YOU like hot chocolate candy? Chocolate cake? Or chocolate ice cream sodas? Then you'll be interested in the news that science is waging a de- termined fight to save the famous cacao plantations of Trinidad, an is- land in the West Indies, from a de- structive plant disease. Trinidad is one of the principal sources of the bean which furnishes \the makings\ for a hot beverage sur- passed in world importance only by coffee and tea, as well as for candies, sweetmeats, etc. Chocolate was a gift to man's pal- ate from the western hemisphere. Like tobacco, the potato, and a number of other plant products, it was taken back to Europe by explorers soon after Columbus opened the road to the New world, and launched on the way that has led to world markets. In trade circles today three terms are used: chocolate, cocoa and cacao. The tropical tree which is the source of chocolate is called the cacao. In its leathery, cucumberlike fruit are cacao pods which contain cacao beans. But when the beans are roasted and ground, and much of the fat is pressed out, the remaining brown substance (ground to a dry powder), is cocoa. If the fat is not pressed out,, the darker substance is chocolate. Credit for the manufacture of choc- olate from the hidden seed of an un- prepossessing fruit belongs to the orig- inal inhabitants of Mexico. In 1519, when Hernando Cortez invaded that country, he discovered that the cacao tree was widely cultivated. The na- tives had concocted a drink called \chocolatl\ or v \cacahuatl from which have come the names \chocolate\ and \cocoa.\ Frothing pitchers of choco- late were served by Montezuma when he entertained Cortez. Long in Use in Mexico. Students of American native cus- toms have estimated that the drink was in use 1,000 years before the ar- rival of Europeans. According to Mex- ican mythology,' the seed of the cacao tree was carried from a New world version of the Garden of Eden into Mexico by Quetzalcoatl, God of Aif. The fruit, it is related, was a favorite food of the gods. 'The great Swedish botanist Linnaeus, christened the fruit theobroma cacao, meaning in Greek ''Food of the Gods.\ Cacao was used as a means of t ter and the payment of tribute by the Aztecs and Mayans. A man's wealth was often judged by the number of cacao beans he possessed. In Mexico a good slave could be purchased for 100 beans. Its highly concentrated food value, low cost of production, and numerous uses, have stimulated cacao cultivation to such an extent that now it is grown in practically all tropical countries. The wet tropical areas of the West African colonies of Great Britain and Portugal, and the South and Central Americas are especially well suited to the cultivation of the trees. The introduction of the cacao tree in Africa has resulted in a remarkable growth of the industry and economic development of the continent The Gold coast has taken first place away from Brazil in the world's production of cacao. What were once tracklejs and useless African jungles, inhabited only by savage bushmen and wild an- imals, today are cacao plantations, op- erated for the most part by natives. America Largest Consumer. As an international commodity, the cacao bean has grown in importance to such an extent that the United States alone, in 1933, imported 474,- 270,000 pounds, valued at $18,739,000. The United States is by far the larg- est consumer, cacao ranking sixteenth in value on our list ot imports. Ger- many, Great Britain, and the Nether lands follow in the order named. For many years the Spaniards oi South America and of some of the West Indies monopolized the cacao in- dustry. Chocolate was introduced tab Spain by Cortez and his conquista- dores about the beginning of the Sir teenth century, but the process cltocolate manufacture was kept a se- cret for almost 100 years. In 1606 an Italian discovered the method of prep- aration. Shortly afterwards, monks nnd travelers spread the news through- out Europe. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries found the popu- larity of the drink steadily increasing, Cocoa houses were established in Eng land, as well as on the continent, Chocolate, however, was a luxury which only the rich could afford, since it sold for as much as $5 a pound. To- day good chocolate can be purchased for a few cents a pound, and is con iumed In one form or another by mil Uon» of people the world over. Modern methods of cocoa and choco ite manufacture differ little from hose used by primitive people cen- uries ago. In Mexico the natives oasted the beans and then ground hem between two warm flat stones until a fine paste was obtained. This was sometimes mixed with maize (corn) and flavored with vanilla and spices. The paste was molded into forms desired and allowed to cool. Modern preparation of the commodity is more scientific and thorough, but the principal steps taken are much the same. Cocoa butter is an important by- product of the cacao bean, which eon-, tains 50 per cent fats. The butter, re- moved by crushing the beans under hydraulic pressure, is extensively used n confectionery, and in pharmaceu- ical preparations. Almost every house- lold has some commodity that con- tains this vegetable fat Cocoa butter is an ingredient of many soaps, po- mades, perfumes, ointments, plasters, and cosmetics. The Gold coast colony In Africa is lormally the world's largest producer >f cacao. In one recent year the col- >ny shipped 54,000 tons of cacao, val- led at $10,000,000, to the United Itates. While the Gold coast no \longer puts its trust in gold, cacao has displaced the metal only within the last few years. 'For 400 years gold was the iope that glittered for white men on the Gold coast Gold mines built the railroad to Seccondee, for which Ta- koradi is the port In 1924 gold ship- ments reached more than $4,000,000, but the mines seem to be nearing ex- haustion. A geological survey of the Gold coast colony in 3915 revealed oth- er minerals which may themselves rel- egate gold to the background. Manga- nese and bauxite are important ex- ports. The first is used in steel mak- ing and the second for aluminum. Big Industry in Brazil. In the state of Bahia in Brazil are about 80,000,000 cacao trees; this fruit has been grown here for about 150 years, and a tiny railway serves the heart of the great cacao region. II hauls more tons of freight per mile than any other railway line in South America. Leaving the coastal plain and enter- ing the foothills, one sees the cacao plantations in long shaded groves. Among bigger, protecting trees the small cacao trees are planted, thui sheltered from sun and wind. Twis- off a green fruit, break it open and taste the whitish seeds; the flavors like watermelon. Barefoot men and women split the pods, empty the seeds on a wide platform, and tread them free of pulp and pith. They call this \Dancing the Cacao.\ The seeds are dried by stirring them in a big flat bin. A wide roof, set on wheels, is at hand, to be hastil; hauled over the bin If It rains. Turn- Ing a dark brown when dried, an tasting of unsweetened chocolate when ripe, the beans are packed in bags and sent to Europe and the United States. In 30 years Bahia's export has risen from 150,000 to 1,200,000 bags a year Brazil dripks very little chocolate, bui much coffee. Near a station named \Lava Pes,' \Wash 3Tour Feet,\ the visitor r stop to watch a long file of umbrelh ants. Each carries a leaf, as if I were an \umbrella. Many ants are ui in a tree, biting off bits of leaf and dropping them to o*\ier ants waiting on the ground. This line of marching ants is often a mile or more long. The ants carry the leaves to their un- derground home, and store them. OD the leaves a fungus forms, and thi! the insects eat Farther up the line one crosses small stream running among cacao covered hills. Long chutes made oi boards run down the hillsides to the water's edge. Down these chutes na- tives slide fresh cacao beans, which empty into waiting dugout canoes. Al- though cacao has been grown here foi so long, the methods of harvesting are still primitive, for human labor cheap. White men find life here hard, be- cause of so many insects and malarli Bugs are a plague: horned tumble-bugs more than seven Inches long—larger than many kinds of birds, snails weigh- ing half a pound, and the fer de lance and other bad snakes. Geographical Position Gives It Undue Importance. Washington. — \Geographical posl? ion gives Austria a place of exag- ited importance in international af- fairs,\ says a National Geographic so- ciety bulletin. \No less than six na- [ons touch the borders of a country larger than the state of Maine. Sermany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Jugoslavia, Italy, and Switzerland, svatch every event inside these bor- 3ers with consuming interest •Austria was reduced by the treaty >f Versailles to a mere shadow of her 'ormer self. A vast empire was whit led down to one small state, overload- id with industries, and deprived of lost natural resources. Her wheat fields went to Hungary, her coal mines to Czechoslovakia, and her sea ports of Trieste and Fiume to Italy. Today Austria has to import most of her coal and much of her foodstuffs. Battles Handicaps. 'Against these handicaps she has waged a sturdy battle—increasing ag- icultural production and developing rater power as a substitute for coal. The fertile plains north of the Danube ive been under intense cultivation, agricultural schools were established, and every possible effort was made to aid and educate the farmer. 'On the other side of the scales are her mines and her industries, al- ways provided that she can find a for- eign market for her 1 products. The mountains of Styria, a province in the Southeast are rich In iron, and the furnaces and steel works of Gras, Leo- ben and Donawitz suppiy the country with 99 per cent of the metal used. Carinthian iron was familiar to the Romans, and later greatly in demand for the armor and trappings of knight- hood. \Austrian salt mines, also old In his- tory, were known to the people of the Bronze age. In addition to upper Styria there are two other important industrial districts—Vorarlberg, fa- mous for embroidery and cotton weav- ing, and Vienna with its textile mills and machine shops. \Factories and machinery make poor introduction to the gay mistress of the Danube. But the Vienna of to- day is a city of sharp contrasts and puzzling contradictions. The Baroque Legend of the Pauion Flower The legend of the passion floi follows: The leaf symbolizes the spear; the five withers, the five wounds; the tendrils, the cords - whips; the column of the ovary, the pillar of the Cross; the stamens,,the hammers; the three styles, the thre< nails; the fleshy threads within the flower, the crown of thorns; the calyx, the glory or nimbus; the white tint, purity; and &• blue tint, heaven. Austria Center of Main Trade Routes From East facades of Hapsburg palaces still line the wide Ringstrasse, hut beyond rise the clean, straight walls of a huge municipal apartment block. The Schon- jferunjQ palace; luxurious residence of Maria Theresa, is now an orphanage for workers' children. Ideals of mod- ern socialism mingle with imperial traditions. \For sixteen years Vienna has been a capital without an empire. The sources of her wealth and power are gone, hut there is one thing that trea- ties couM \not take away, and that is her geographical location. She lies at the crossroads of Europe, where the main trade routes from the Baltic to the Adriatic cross the great east-west highway of* the Danube. Tourist Trade Important. \Geography destined the city to play an important commercial role, and geog- raphy may prove a deciding factor in her future recovery. The Danube con- tinues to carry a heavy burden of shipping. No less than seven great Ten-Hour Rest Is ~ Park Geyser Code Yellowstone Park, Wyo.—Per- haps the influence of the NBA has at last reached \the geysers of Yel- lowstone park. At any rate, rang- ers point out Riverside geyser is lengthening the time between erup- tions. Whereas a year ago it was spouting every eight hours, it now rests ten.hours between shows. railway lines meet within the city, and it seems likely that Vienna will re- main an Important*center of distribu- tion, despite political upheavals. \During the last few years Austria has relied increasingly upon tourist trade to balance the—budget More than two-thirds of the country is mountainous, with towering snow peaks, narrow valleys, hidden villages, and deep blue lakes—an ideal vacation land. Austria is famous for her lakes, particularly those of Salzkammergut In the vicinity of Salzburg. There are sports for every season. During the summer, spas and health resorts are crowded, tiny flatboats shoot down the swift waters of the Inn, and energetic mountaineers assault the most forbid- ding of Alpine peaks.\ Huey Long's Soldiers on Guard LIFE'S GAME \It was a priceless show,\ said the man who had been given free tickets. Motors may ruin our young folk, but there are youngsters who ruin our motors. Loudspeakers may be divided roughly Into two parts. Many of them ought to be. Elowe About: Conversation On Quitting Work The Country ©. Bell Syndicate.;-—WNU Service. QUEER THINGS Parts of Kalahari, the vast desert In South Africa, recently felt rain for the first time In 40 years. The epitaph of an Alpine guide who died recently in Valais, Switzerland, reads simply: \He never fell.\ The Indians of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., are being taught their own lan- guage by Chief Yellow Feather. A man recently wrote a railway in England asking for a reservation for his coffin in a corner seat of the car. Drivers of motor buses in Istanbul, Turkey, have to be married men and teetotalers and must not use drugs or play cards. Coal-black blood with the consist- ency of tar was found in the veins of a man, aged thirty-nine, who died re- cently In Longford, Elngland. The smallest post office in the United States is eight feet long and six feet wide, built of logs. The Inside working space is six by five and one- half feet High ranges at the eastern end of the Himalayas run west to east stead of north to south as shown on recent maps, reports an explorer who returned from southeastern Tibet Scene in the office of the registrar of voters in New Orleans, when a machine gun company of the state militia took over the job of%uardlng the registration rolls for Senator Huey P. Long. The gunners kept their weapons trained on the city ball, across the street, in case Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley should direct the police to stage a sortie. Russian War Debt Question Still With Us Conferences Held Looking to Settlement By WILLIAM U BRUCKART Washington.—The Russian debt question is still with us. Away back in 1917, it will be remembered, the Wilson administration in its conduct of the World war authorized and made enormous loans to foreign govern- ments to aid in the fight against Pan- Germanism. Some of the debts have been funded. Some, like the Russian, have been virtually repudiated. But the Soviet government after renounc- ing all obligations of its predecessors in Russia, is now trying to work out some sort of settlement of the obliga^ tion, which amounts to three or four hundred million dollars. Upon recognition of the Soviet by President Roosevelt, plans immedi- ately were made by this government to aid in financing exports to Russia. To accomplish this, the first export- import bank was established. But along came a bill by Senator Johnson of California which prohibited exten- sion of credit to any foreign govern- ment which owed money in this coun- try. That effectively precluded aid by tlie export-Import bank for American exporters who desire to sell to the Soviet The result was early moves by the Soviet ambassador to Wash- ington looking to a settlement of the old war-time debt so that the effect of the Johnson,law would be abro- gated, insofar as they were concerned. These conferences are now under way. Little progress has been made, but Secretary Hull of the State depart- ment, the American commissioner, is WANTS WALSH'S SEAT James E, Murray, a Butte attorney, won the Democratic nomination for the United States senate to serve out the remainder of the term of the late Taotnas J. Walsh. optimistic and thinks that eventually some method of repayment may be worked out Engineers Select Site for Dams on Rio Grande El Paso, Texas.—Two tentative sites for storage dams to equalize and con- serve the lower Rio Grande flow have been selected by W. F. Anderson and A. M. Amor, consulting engineers of the international boundary commis- on. The engineers selected a place at El Jardin, between Laredo and Del Rio, as one of the sites for a storage dam with a capacity of 1,500,000 acre feet The other site is at the lower end of the San Juan river in Mexico. The engineers are making a survey on possibilities of. equalizing and con- serving the flow so that lower Rio Grande residents will not experience a drouth one month and a flood the next Uncover Will Drawn 18 Years Before Revolution Sycamore, I1L—A last will and testa- ment, drawn 18 years before the out- break of the Revolutionary war but still legible, was uncovered among the heirlooms of Emerson Andrew here. The parchment document penned and sealed on August 6, 1757, by Samuel Daviss at Massachusetts, Bay, is now more than 177 years old. Daviss be- queathed his home property, a horse and cattle to his wife. He gave each of three daughters a share In other land holdings and stock. To one sur- viving son he left 25 pounds of \law- ful silver money,\ and to a kinsman left 20 pounds \providing he behaved welL\ Doctor's Yearly Salary of $1 Is Sliced to 87c Augusta, Ga.—\I hope I won't be criticized for drawing down more than one salary,\ said Dr. Elmer V. r Campbell, mayor of Hallowell and di- rector of- the division of sanitary en- gineering at the state house, when he received an 87 cent check from the United States public health service In payment for his services during the past year as collaborating sanitary engineer In Maine. The salary was $1 a year, but was cut because of the depression. License as Veterinary Is Won by College Girl San Francisco.—Pretty Patricia Henno Is reedy to hang out her shingle as a veternarian, It was revealed here. Miss Henno was recently granted license to practice in the state of Washington and is hopeful of soon curing a California license. She Is a graduate of Washington State college and a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. Parrots Learn How to Speak in \University\ Berlin.—Unique in that its students are all parrots, a \university\ has been opened here where fond mammas or papas may bring their squawkers for instruction in languages. The school is international in scope, the birds being taught German, French and English. Contrary to most meth- ods of teaching the birds, the \profes- sor\ has phonograph records made of his voice repeating the sentences that the owners desire to have drilled into their birds. For two hours a day the bird is given his individual instruction until he is able to repeat the sentence. It generally takes about four weeks to give a parrot a vocabulary of sixty words but longer time is required to make them respond to the proper an- swers. FROM A DISTANCE Rents in Shanghai, China, are soar- Ing. Rome has 12 of Egypt's ancient obe- lisks. There are more than 100,000 lepei In India. Fully 1,600,000,000 bushels of rice were grown in China last year. University graduates of Scotland are taking up the bakery business. Labor Unions of Britain have lost over 1,000,000 members in the last nine years. Soviet authors have opened a col- lege at Leningrad for gifted children displaying literary talent Native physicians now are being trained at a medical school in Fiji under the direction of British doe- tors. Although nearly 20,000 persons «-ont to prison for 8ebtg\jn England in the ist year, very few^of them were in« eome tax defaulters. Ancient Well Reveals Bones of Latin Warrior Rome.—The body of an early Latin warrior, belonging to the civilization tradition says was planted in Italy by Aeneas and the Dardanians, has been found In an old and disused well near the village of Lanuvio, 20 miles from here. This ancestor of the Romans lay in his sarcophagus, wrapped in his armor, with his sword beside him, his shield and helmet exactly as he was buried between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago. When the sarcophagus was opened and the air entered the bones dissolved Into dust The bronze breastplate, the helmet and the sword are in relatively good condition. Sheepmen Confronted With Threat From East Butte, Mont—Western sheepmen, who fought the cattlemen for range rights in some of the bloodiest range wars of the Old West face a new en- emy, according to A. A. Evans, pres- ident of the North American Sheep Shearers' union. Eastern sportsmen, he said, were backing a movement to have sheep ruled off large tracts of western lands as a means of pre- serving game. Evans said that charges that sheep destroyed feed needed for game were false, as they usually ranged on lands onsuited for wild game in any considerable numbers. British Rabbits Prove Menace to Forest Work London.—Forestry work In Britain is being checked by rabbits, which have become almost a plague. Ac- cording to a bulletin of the forestry commission, a single rabbit can do $50 worth of damage In a night to a plan- tation of young trees. To fence In an acre against them costs about $65. The Hon. James A. Best says there now scarcely is a place in Britain where a forest plantation Is safe against rabbits, whereas In Germany one never sees a rabbit, and the only fencing around forest plantations is «n occasional one against deer HERE AND THERE Gas masks for logs and horses are uew defensive weapons of war. One book in the Birmingham (Eng- land) Shakespearean library, has been appraised at $70,000. Fires, storms and insects destroy an- nually in the United States 7,000,000,- 000 board feet of standing timber. The highest wind velocity ever re- corded, 231 miles an hour, was report- ed from Mt Washington's weather sta- tion recently. Foresters say wood-eating termites are becoming increasingly numerous in cities because of the rapid depletion of forest areas. Candler field at Atlanta, Ga., one of the country's major airports, was a gully-washed wasteland too rough for cow pasture only a few years ago. More than $5,000,000 in gold is be- lieved to be in the Laurentic, sunk by enemy submarines in Lough Swilly, off the Irish coast during the World wac WORDS OF WISE MEN All's good in a famine. After-advice ia fool's advice. No rogue like a godly rogue. Prefer old heads and young hands. Ignorance is the mother of Impu- dence, God healeth and the physician hath the thanks. Castles in the air cost a vast deal to keep up. It is good to lengthen to the last a surly mood. When the hostess is handsome, the wine is good. Books, like fish, should first be a good while soaking before served. There are three* bad neighbors; great roads, great loads, and great riv- ns. By ED HOWS HAVE met some opposition in my contention that a man may learn much from conversation going on around him; that he may thus ac- quire education as unconsciously as tie eats his meals, attends to his work, Dr otherwise^meets life's incidents. I have known a telegraph operator to sit idly for hours in a room full of clattering Instruments, and suddenly grasp a key when his call came out- of the confusion. So a man constantly In the babble of conversation may pay little attention to it until something of interest attracts him; a bit of wisdom. news, or a jest he has not heard. \\' Oscar Wilde left In books as great a number of bright sayings ai any Englishman. All of them were sug- gested from mingling with men, first used in conversation, and the best of them later transferred to print. Men acquire education laboriously from books they tare compelled to study as duty, but easily out in the world, where everyone has a little, and is busy distributing It ' . * \Because a man loses his job,\ I read somewhere, \it does not follow he should quit work.\ That is good sense. I know a man who lost his job as a maker of radio - parts. This morning I bought vege- tables of him; he. continued work on some land a neighbor let him use, and he has not suffered the humiliation of calling on the Salvation army, the Red, Cross, the county commissioners, or congress. I have another neighbor who lost his job in a machine shop. He did not quit work, either; he is now operating a laundry in his home. In case I am able to change shirts this week, I shall certainly arrange with this man to wash my old one. Some of my other neighbors are get- ting $15 a month from the county, and regularly their names appear in the papers, under the heading of \Dis- bursements to the County Poor.\ I shall make a hard struggle to keep my name out of the list. I know most of the people read it and make ugly comments. * • • If the people are starving, what is to be done about it since nature has no more to give? I once lived on a •farm, and while I am able to recall some discomforts, I always had enough to eat Frequently, we used parched rye for coffee, and sorghum molasses for sweetening. The other day I found sorghum molasses on the table, bought from an old-fashioD«Hi farmer, and thought it still very good. We grated corn meal for bread, and always down in the feed lot were pigs coming on to supply meat when the smoke house began to show signs of emptiness. We had cattle for plowing, and to supply milk. Chickens almost took care of themselyes about the place, and supplied eggs in addition to a surplus of old roosters which, when boiled long enough, made fairly good eating. We had wild plums, blackber- ries, and preserved them for winter use. There was plenty of fuel in the woods, and one man in the neighbor- hood tanned beef hides, from which another made shoes. In almost every house there was a loom, for the manu- facture of a cloth called linsey wool- sey, and this supplied clothing. It was a poor start, but we were never hungry or naked while waiting for times to get better. And times never did get much better; indeed, i think they are harder now than I ever knew them to be on Big Creek. The big-headed town people should remember there Is a place where they can at least always get enough to eat, and move out into the\ country. Pretty much all the land will soon be owned by the government through tax sales, and almost anyone free to file on i t • * • In one of the periods of depression in Rome, Silerius called the poor to- gether. \In your meetings,\ be said, \you make very severe charges against those who are feeding you. It.is not usual to criticize fee poor, but many of you have very bad habits, and are not doing your part In an emergency all should help. Some of the rioting you have Indulged in has only resulted in destroying such food supplies as we have. I give you frank notice this will not be submitted to again. If any of you have not heard of It I an- nounce I am head of the army, and will not join you In unnecessary de- struction.\ • • • On a certain day In history the Rus- sians were fighting against Frederick the Great The next day the Russian armies were ordered by their chief Big Man to fight for Frederick. . . . As a subject I have often rebelled against the orders- given me by rulers, believing they frequently order big things done for petty reasons. It Is probably best that parents and children do not boldly tell or print what they really think of each other. ... A reasonable amount of re- straint is best In everything; within bounds hypocrisy has its good points. A certain mean foreigner, long since dead, has been written about for years, and pronounced a mystery. . . . More foolishness; no man Is a mys- tery. I know myself, and necessarily know others. And whether I look at others or at myself, my know ledge shames me.
